For Nicky, and other pictures

[Tap]

Here are a few pics. (I would do more if I could load them faster) of some of our coming 2 yr. old hereford bulls, and some of our purchased cows. We will be breeding the hereford bulls to these cows and hope for a nice hybred kick.

Here is a Shield Bar Hereford bull we bought recently.

Here is a couple of them next to a coming 2yr. old angus bull. He will be 2 in June.

Next are a few of the cows we bought eating some cake.

 

[Faster horses]

Dang nice looking bulls, Tap! And it looks like you put some nice cows together too. I thought you said some of them were thin? These look pretty darn good to me.

Good luck with them!!!

 

[Tap]

Thanks FH, I think the bulls are fancy myself. And your money goes a little further than buying some of the angus bulls. :wink:

Here are a couple more from yesterday.
This is some of our home raised cows that have gotten thru the winter on no hay and just 3 lbs. of cake every other day. The one on the right is an easy keeper. lol

One more of the pasture that the last cows are in. Look in the center and see the deer.

 

[Tap]

Really, the cow on the right that I laughed about is not really fat, but she is strong, and she is full. They will have lots of time to get good and fat just after, or even before they calve, when we get some green grass.

I just posted that picture to show that not having that much investment in cows for a winter bill, doesn't necessarily mean thin cows.

 

[Soapweed]

Nice pictures, Tap. Good looking cows, and ruggedly handsome Hereford bulls. That should make a good F1 cross. You might want to have some horn irons heating up on branding day. :wink:

 

[Tap]

It shouldn't be a problem Soapweed. Our cows are polled. :wink: :shock:

No you are right, just the other day I was thinking that we better get some better horn irons, as ours are junk and havn't needed any for a long time either. Till now.

I think those bulls will make nice stout calves. Regardless of color.

 

[cert]

Hey Tap, nice looking critters. I kinda fancy them bulls too.

I use Horned herfs on polled cows and very rarely get a set of horns on the first generation of calves. Might just be my dumb luck, but that is the way it's worked here. Maybe the occasional scurr.

Good looking bunch though, thanks for sharing.

 

[Nicky]

Great pictures, thanks! And I was being efficient :???: and sent you an email before coming here. Everything looks really good, weather included! We hardly ever have horns on calves out of angus cows. As to your question on the heterosis thread about the 3 yr old cows being able to have the calves out of the Hereford bulls...I would think they should with no problem. But guess alot of that depends on the cows too. The only calves we pull here are abnormal presentations.

 

[Soapweed]

When using an Angus bull on horned Hereford cows, it is very rare to ever get a horned calf. Using horned Hereford bulls on polled Angus cows, it seems like there are sure more horns for some reason. It must be that the horns come through on the sire's side more than on the dam's.

 

[Jason]

Shouldn't those Herefords have horn weights on by now? Unless they are going to lose them I guess.

The hair is always good on those red and white bulls it seems.

As for horns on calves, maybe the cows aren't purebreds (straightbred doesn't = purebred) where the bulls are. (Just an idea not meant to question experience :wink: )

 

[Faster horses]

I like the cows fine, Tap. And you won't have problems with the three year olds calving bred to the Herefords, unless there is a bw problem in your cows, which I'm sure you don't have.

Now with the right mineral program you should be able to get the 'red' off them 'black' cows. :wink:

 

[Tap]

Now with the right mineral program you should be able to get the 'red' off them 'black' cows.

Faster Horses, you are a strong advocate for your program, if nothing else. :lol:

 

[Tap]

Glad you liked the pictures Nicky! I like good bulls of any color.

Jason, I have been told that 2 yr. old bulls are a little old for horn weights. The local hereford guru said that he thought they had weights on them earlier, but they probably weren't left on long enough.

What do you know about this Nicky? Do you worry about it, or use dehorned bulls?

 

[ranchwife]

Those are some fine-looking hereford bulls.....too bad my dad/hero is not here to see these pix...he raised herefords on his farm in north dakota...that was, before they lost the farm in the mid-80's I love to look at the pix he has around of him in his younger days with his 4-H steers!!!

 

[Soapweed]

We traded ranches back in the spring of 1986. I was still using quite a few Hereford bulls at the time, and one of them had a pretty wide horn-spread. We were loading our bulls on a truck to haul them to the new ranch, thirty miles away, even though we had trailed the cows and calves a few days earlier. This one bull started up the loading chute a time or two, but his horns were too wide to fit. We had all the bulls loaded but that Hereford, and one Angus. Just as the Hereford made one more attempt to turn his head enough to get through the chute, the Angus bull took a run at him from the back. The Angus got his head under the Hereford's hind legs and flung him up in the air, plumb turning the Hereford upside down in the chute. He was stuck about as tight as could be. I had to make a fast trip to a neighbor's place to borrow a chainsaw, and it took quite a bit of sawing and crow-barring to free the bull. Eventually we did get them all loaded and hauled to their new home.

 

[CattleRMe]

Nice Herford bull. One year we used herford bulls as clean up bulls for the ranch A.I. program and ended up with some nice black bawly calves. The good thing was there was little to no question as the those close to date AI calves that could be late AI calves or early clean up bull calves. The white faces made them stick right out! Plus we ended up with some nice blawly mommas that we are enjoying today.

This year we used Herford bulls again on the embryo transfer cows for the same reasons those little white faces just stand out.

Years ago my grandparents had herfords the biggest problems they had with them was sunburnt bags, something with their eyes (I don't recall what) and prolapsing. Has this gotten better or still a problem with the breed? When my grandparents switched to black angus I recall as a kid hearing those cows just shoot out calves and they don't go over the hill and prolapse.

 

[Denny]

I had bought a hereford bull they had tipped the horns they cut them from the top down at a 45 degree angle that caused them to grow downward they only tipped about 2 inches back at angled it towards the horn tip it worked.I bet you could do that as those bulls got quite a little horn growth left.

 

[WB]

Horn weights and tipping need to be done before the bulls first birthday. Quite a few of the horned Hereford breeders in this area are dehorning their bulls these days.

Nice looking pictures BTW.

 

[Nicky]

We tip the bull horns like Denny said, they don't HAVE to be done before the first bday but the more growth that is left is better. It is a bit of a learning curve to get the angle right they can turn too much or not enough. I'd probably still do those bulls of yours Tap as the horns will be a pain if you run them through a chute. If you don't I wouldn't worry about it. Was that one of the new angus bulls in the picture with the Herefords?

 

[Faster horses]

Tap, I bet Reislands would have an answer for you. They have been in the Hereford business for years. I am surprised the horns aren't tipped. It would be my opinion that you should do what you can with them now.

Sure nice looking buggers!!!